Prisoners Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb

A masterful work of science writing thats both a fascinating biography of von Neumann, the Hungarian exile whose mathematical theories were building blocks for the Abomb and the digital computer, and a brilliant social history of game theory and its role in the Cold War and nuclear arms race (San Francisco Chronicle).Should you watch public television without pledging?...Exceed the posted speed limit?...Hop a subway turnstile without paying? These questions illustrate the socalled prisoners dilemma, a social puzzle that we all face every day. Though the answers may seem simple, their profound implications make the prisoners dilemma one of the great unifying concepts of science. Watching players bluff in a poker game inspired John von Neumannfather of the modern computer and one of the sharpest minds of the centuryto construct game theory, a mathematical study of conflict and deception. Game theory was readily embraced at the RAND Corporation, the archetypical think tank charged with formulating military strategy for the atomic age, and in 1950 two RAND scientists made a momentous discovery.Called the prisoners dilemma, it is a disturbing and mindbending game where two or more people may betray the common good for individual gain. Introduced shortly after the Soviet Union acquired the atomic bomb, the prisoners dilemma quickly became a popular allegory of the nuclear arms race. Intellectuals such as von Neumann and Bertrand Russell joined military and political leaders in rallying to the preventive war movement, which advocated a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. Though the Truman administration rejected preventive war the United States entered into an arms race with the Soviets and game theory developed into a controversial tool of public policyalternately accused of justifying arms races and touted as the only hope of preventing them.Prisoners Dilemma is the incisive story of a revolutionary idea that has been hailed as a landmark of twentiethcentury thought.